Susan Schroeder
University of Oklahoma, OK·Plant Science & Agriculture
Plants cannot move away from drought or heat, so they reshape which genes are active inside their cells. One way to do this is to chemically tag messenger RNAs (mRNAs), the copies of genes that cells use to build proteins.
- Fields
Plant Science & Agriculture
Biochemistry
Genetics
- Topics
dihydrouridine
RNA modification
epitranscriptomics
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2029
What they work on
- Map dihydrouridine (DHU) on mRNAs at single-nucleotide resolution across tissues and stress conditions in Arabidopsis, using Oxford Nanopore direct RNA sequencing with machine-learning detection algorithms.
- Determine how DHU influences mRNA structure, function and degradation transcriptome-wide, and link it to transcript stability alongside other RNA chemical modifications.
- Identify the protein machinery that controls where DHU is placed, using RNA and protein immunoprecipitation followed by mass spectrometry.
- Produce a time-resolved mRNA decay dataset and modification-aware mRNA structure models for Arabidopsis under control and heat conditions.
More about the research
These tags can change how stable an mRNA is, how it folds and where it goes. This project investigates dihydrouridine (DHU), a chemical modification long known on transfer RNAs. DHU was recently found on mRNAs for core photosynthesis and metabolism proteins in Arabidopsis and sorghum. It appears to mark these abundant mRNAs for rapid breakdown under drought and heat stress.
Why it matters
Understanding how DHU helps plants tolerate drought and heat could reveal new targets for breeding or engineering more resilient crops. Because the enzymes that add DHU also exist in yeast and humans, the findings may inform human health research. Open datasets and algorithms will support plant scientists studying RNA modifications. The project also includes training in computational and RNA biology for undergraduates with little prior exposure.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Jeffery Coller
Johns Hopkins University, MD·Biochemistry
Determine how the mRNA degradation complex senses ribosome speed as it changes with codon optimality.
Fadia Ibrahim
Thomas Jefferson University, PA·Biochemistry
Measure how cellular conditions that stall ribosomes change the mRNA fragments produced by ribothrypsis, using transcriptome-wide sequencing methods that capture both ends of each mRNA.
Pavla Brachova
Old Dominion University, VA·Biology
Determine how inosine, a chemical modification in the coding region of mRNA, affects translation in oocytes, including whether it causes amino acid substitutions, using proteomics and RNA-sequencing approaches.
The school
University of Oklahoma: 11 labs on PI Pages, $474M a year on research, 225 research doctorates a year.
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